I was hoping to escape with Hana without any problems. But with all these hands in front of me, I don’t think that’s an option anymore.
The wall of threads above the palms makes up a white wall of death, the souls of the consumed begging for the sweet release of death. At this rate, even if I jump and grab every single thread, my mind will probably get fried from the overload.
They’re standing there, just watching me. It’s just like the hand from last night. This can’t be serious. I barely dealt with one on my own, and now I have to fight against what, hundreds? Not to mention the strange lady behind me.
She wanted me to drop Hana so she can capture me. If those beams that rained from the sky and the curse were her doing, then her magic probably has something to do with the lullabies she sings.
It’s not any lullaby I know, but it could just be something from her hometown. But who cares about that right now?
My question is, why does she need me to drop Hana?
Realistically, if she got both of us, wouldn’t that be a complete win-win for the cult? They get what they want, and they kill the Sword Saint, who is objectively a bigger obstacle than me.
I highly doubt that it’s out of mercy, too. I mean, they clearly have no problem torturing people beyond the grave.
Unless, she can’t get us both.
My memory’s a bit hazy on this lady, so I can’t really remember anything about her. But with how her spells just broke the rules of everything I know about magic, I have to assume that anything is possible.
The first row of hands begins to glow an orange hue. A classic cue for fire magic. Based on what I know from yesterday’s hand, I’ll have to assume that they’re going to shoot fireballs. As long as I have speed by my side, there’s no way their attacks even hit me.
Their wrists flick backward as magical circles form at the tips of where the nails would be.
In my next breath, a sharp, thin vertical line of fire blazes past me, barely scorching the tip of my shoulder. A part of my robe is sliced clean off, like a hot knife cutting through a piece of flimsy paper.
I’ve never expected sentient clumps of mud would be able to manipulate spell structure, but there’s a first time for everything.
Twinkle,
Twinkle,
Little
Star.
How I wonder what you are!
The skies sparkle a hint of golden yellow before raining down magical bolts from the clouds. Within the blink of an eye, three craters form behind me, a warning shot from the caster.
With how the crater on the ground is formed, I’ll have to assume that the spell has more blunt properties rather than severing ones. But it’s not like her spell needs that. The fire hands can do the severing in her stead.
I'm cornered. If I decide to run, I’d have to get as far away as possible before she finishes casting.
In that spell, she had to say the first four words individually.
But what do I do with Hana? I literally can’t do anything with her in my arms, but her being here is what’s stopping them from making any further advances.
It’s clear that the star spell was a warning to scare me into submission. I’m sorry, lady, but I’ve seen way scarier things in the last few weeks compared to this.
I really, really don’t want to do this.
But I have no choice.
Taking a step back, I dig my heels into the ground, spinning around as fast as possible. If time’s her weakness, then I’ll make sure to take advantage of the downtime as much as possible.
The wind resists my sudden movement, and my mind starts to spin. But this is fine. All I need to do is put enough strength into my arms to throw her as far away as possible. She might hate me for this, but she just managed to tank an entire shooting star.
“—Wait!” Hana squeals. I’ve never heard her voice like this.
I can’t tell if the lady behind me is casting a spell. That’s probably why she’s wearing such a thick veil. But assuming she started opening her mouth the moment I started spinning, then it’s safe to assume I have a total of five more seconds.
With a grunt, I throw Hana as far as possible, using the momentum as my ally. Her body flings through the air like a paper starfish. I’m not exactly sure where I threw her. I just know I did. She can get mad at me later, but for now…
I have to do something about these hands.
If I had to guess, I probably have a total of three seconds left. I need to run as quickly as possible.
—go away
Okay, that’s probably the first part of the cast. She followed up the star spell with a second, longer phrase. If it follows the same pattern, then I have more than enough time to run through the hands ahead.
My body begins to heat up rapidly as I feel the magical energy flowing through my body at a ridiculous speed. I visualize water rushing through a thin river, speeding through rock, dirt, and mud as quickly as possible.
That’s my magical energy. As for my body…
I’m the fish trying to swim upstream.
The sensation of a knife scratching every inch of my skin recoils me, forcing me to take a short step back. But I can’t stop now. This is the easy part. If I lose here now, then I won’t ever be strong enough to save Albo.
I can’t hear the sound, but I can. The gears inside me that were dormant for the last eighteen years, you’ve had all my life to rest, so now I’m putting you to work!
“Let’s go!”
Kicking my feet, I launch myself forward. The muddy hands get closer as I close the distance at an incredible speed. Frankly, I can’t even tell how fast I’m going. If I want to leap over them, I’ll have to use an estimated calculation to pull it off.
The real question is, do I pull their threads now?
They’re looking for me. They didn’t have to do all this just for me. Were they looking for that damn book? I would have just given it to them if they asked!
There was no need for such senseless death!
It’s my fault they’re suffering, so it’s my responsibility to see them off.
My legs fold as I leap into the air. My face comes closer to the threads. The thin, vertical fire projectiles shoot toward my body with full intention to split me open like fresh fruit. I shift my body weight, twisting my airborne position just enough to dodge the incoming attacks.
It’s now or never.
Come again—
I need more time. I shouldn’t have waited around too long. This was the clearest answer all along.
My right hand reaches out with an open palm. The thin threads brush up against my hand.
Their life memories flood into my mind.
██████
My mind screeches.
It feels like my brain is about to explode. There are too many memories, too many lives. You can’t expect me to pull these threads. I barely touched them, and I’m about to burn up from the inside.
Mother. Father. Daughter. Son. Father. Daughter. Mother. Chef. Merchant. Knight. Daughter. Merchant. Trader. Son. Father. Mother. Weaver. M29U0▂▂▄▄▅GMOT
HER██▂▅▃▄▄▅TuRer-...
…
…
…
I… still need to pull through.
I owe it to them, I OWE IT TO THEM.
I CAN’T LET THEM SUFFER ANYMORE.
I WON’T LET ANYONE ELSE SUFFER FOR MY SAKE ANYMORE!
YOU WANT ME?! COME GET ME!
I pass the imaginary goal line I set for myself as my body falls onto the stone floor. My knees and elbows scrape along, tearing bits of skin under the pressure of sudden friction and re-opening my freshly patched wounds. My bones do their best to protect my organs as I enter a tumbling state.
But my hands, my hands are still gripping the threads.
My uncontrollable rolling comes to a halt as I grit my teeth for what’s to come.
With one final hoorah, I pull on the threads as strongly as possible. My magical energy halted their flow sometime around when I started seeing memories, so I summon every bit of adrenaline I can muster to dismantle their souls.
In a final death woe, the hands dissolve into nothingness.
“Your cries are nothing but lies.”
The selfish desire of a newborn child to live. But unlike a human, demi-human, elven, or any other living being, you weren’t born with integrity and love. All you do is feed and live off the despair of others.
“Your cries mean nothing to me!”
As the hands before me dissolve, my Soul Sight deactivates, and I see the lady’s surprised face, her veil flipped over her head. I don’t know whether it was her who flipped it, or if I did with the sudden burst of wind behind me.
Her crimson eyes are wide open, staring at what she probably thinks is impossible. She seemed pretty shocked already that I could move in her barrier, but she probably never expected me to pull off such a thing.
Still, she’s quite beautiful. Her skin looks silky smooth, with not a single hint of acne invading her face. Her lips are captivating, as is her general facial structure. If she took her singing skills and worked as a school teacher, she’d no doubt be the most popular teacher.
The flipped veil falls back down, obscuring her face again.
“Unbelievable…” she takes a step forward, astonished by what she just saw.
“I’ve never seen magic like that?”
“Tell me, what tier of magic is that?”
“What world is that from?”
Her questions are a string of nonsense to me. Has she never seen arcane magic before? What is this “world” thing that she’s talking about?
For now, I’ll give her a smartass answer. I don’t necessarily need to talk to her, I’ll probably have my answers sooner or later through the book.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I’m spent. My mind is still a bit hazy from the number of souls I pulled. I could try to run away right now, but I most likely don’t have the dexterity to escape without her casting a spell first. If she uses that twinkle spell, I might just lose consciousness.
I get back on my feet, facing the woman before me. We enter a stalemate. Neither of us moves a muscle.
She’s clearly waiting for my next move, and I’m doing the same. Looks like we’re both reactionary people.
Visualizing the magical flow, I forcefully jumpstart the gears inside me back into a state of functionality.
She draws in her breath, no doubt to cast her spell. I prepare to counter by activating my Soul Sight.
The remaining hands that I couldn’t set free surround us, watching like a curious crowd. It’s like when Albo and I watched the fights at our school.
Rain,
Rain,
go away
Wait, what is that?
There’s a bubble forming in front of her, like she’s blowing a balloon, slowly getting bigger with every word.
A normal person would never be able to see it, but with my Soul Sight, the cast is clear as day.
Come again
The bubble encases her whole body. It’s long enough to capture the tallest person on the planet, but it’s also too thin to capture two people. Which is probably why she was worried about Hana when I was carrying her.
If the bubble is that thin, then there’s no way it’d capture the both of us.
Another day.
Like a gust of wind, the bubble shoots toward me at an inhuman speed. Out of pure survival instinct, I take a large leap to the side as the tip of my hair barely touches the edge of the bubble.
Behind me, one of the hands that was wandering aimlessly vanishes from my sight. There’s no sound or visual feedback. It’s almost as if the hand never existed, or that the woman deleted it from existence.
“You dodged it!?” There’s genuine confusion in her question. If I had to guess, her jaw is probably on the ground after that. If she’s surprised about that, then it’s easy to assume that nobody has ever dodged her attack.
Which means my Soul Sight is the only thing that can see her spells.
She clicks her tongue before standing fully upright. It makes so much sense now. She wears her veil to prevent anyone from seeing her timing of attack, but with my eyes, her technique is completely nullified.
To me, she’s no different than someone shooting a fireball spell at me.
And to top it off…
There’s no mirages in front of me.
Which means I either haven’t gone this route before, or I don’t die to this lady.
It’s a clear win for me. There’s no other answer.
My eyes scan her body. I lean forward and burst into an explosive dash. My legs are worn out and tired, but I can at least manage one final attack to knock her out.
She has two disadvantages: her casting speed, and the fact that I can see where her attacks are headed.
Twinkle,
Twinkle,
Little
Star.
It’s the same one as before. But that doesn’t matter, because I can see the magical energy forming around her. Unlike the last one, this time it’s a disk forming on the ground, slowly expanding with each word she says.
How I wonder what you are!
My heels pivot to the right just as the disk halts in front of me, right where I would have stepped. Beams of light rain from the sky, piercing the stone ground like unstoppable lances. But it doesn’t stop with one.
Two more halt in front of me, trying to catch me off guard. There’s no doubt that she’s trying to throw me off balance by forcing such sudden movements.
Like a choreographed dance, I step around the disks in front of me as my movements are illuminated by the bright shine of the falling stars. I don’t mean to make my steps look so stunning, but if I were that woman, I’d be pretty shocked myself.
I just need five more steps before I reach her. With a single knockout, I can hopefully end this battle once and for all. When the barrier collapses, everything will be back to normal, and this nightmare will finally be over.
Twinkle,
Twinkle,
Little
Star.
How I wonder what you are!
The disks halt awfully close to her. She changes her tactic from trying to strike me down to trying to defend herself.
My fist glows a bright blue as it travels through the air. My target is her face, a clean, single punch to knock her unconscious as quickly as possible. I have no time to hesitate or have fun. There’s nothing fun about this.
I had to kill so many people today. I had to see so many lost souls. If it were up to me, I’d knock her head clean off her neck, but I need her for information.
“Wait!” she yelps while recoiling back. She lifts both her hands to her chest to signify peace and mercy, but it’s far too late to cut any deals.
Two more steps.
This is it, it’s over.
Just before my fist connects, the woman slips backward.
Her butt makes contact with the floor as she scuttles backward on the ground like a hunted insect. I’m baffled. I forgot that just because someone’s powerful, it doesn’t mean they’re fearless.
I’ve been so tainted fighting against Rias and Sulva for so long that I completely forgot cowards exist everywhere.
Rain, rain, go away
She speaks faster than she ever has before. The bubble she casts is weaker and smaller, but it’s not a bad plan for her. At my current range, if she shot the bubble right at me, I’d have to either leap back or get hit with her attack.
I’d have to repeat this entire process again, but beggars can’t be choosers.
How I wonder what you are!
…
My boots skid to a halt, and I stand staring at the empty stone road before me. The environment around me hasn’t changed, and the hands are still standing, surrounding me.
The only difference in the world is that now, the woman before me has completely vanished, just like the hand that fell victim to her bubble moments earlier.
“Did she use the spell on herself?”
It makes sense. I’d do the same if I were her. There was no way she could win against me in a battle of speed. Even during the last cast, she had to speed up her speech as much as possible just to barely escape.
If anything, I’m lucky to have been able to move at all. Everyone back at the castle was struggling to even stand up.
I do hope they’re okay.
My Soul Sight is still active, so I scan the dome above me. To regular eyes, it probably just looks like a red dome with black markings and spots all over it, like a poorly painted bowl. I mean, that’s what it looked like to me when my ability was off.
But I see something completely different: magical energy flowing from the base of the dome to the top.
I let out a gasp as I see something I should have noticed much earlier.
In the middle of the dome, all the magical energy is gathered into one place, dripping down into a small rod and onto what looks like a cradle for a baby. Its large, oval shape taunts the world below with its unreachable height.
But every single bit of magical energy the dome produces is being funneled into that one cradle. Speaking of which, the chant she sang right before the barrier appeared mentioned something about a baby.
I was hoping the curse would dissipate after I beat the lady, but I let my opportunity slip. A black, mud-like curse surrounds the reigning artifact in the sky. If I had to guess, not even elemental attacks would be able to shatter it.
They definitely thought of every possible factor. In its current state, neither Hana nor the Queen would be able to break the magic.
I’m not sure how the barrier is able to sustain itself with so much magical energy. It absolutely goes above and beyond what a regular human could generate. The magical energy being siphoned is equivalent to that of an entire city.
…
What if it is siphoning from the city?
It would make sense. The mud had no problem siphoning magical energy from people on the verge of death. Is it the land itself?
It could be a possibility, since that’s primarily how people cast earth magic.
Or maybe…
It’s actively draining the regeneration rate of people, which would explain why everyone is so weak.
I don’t actually expend magical energy because of my lack of a Birthmark. But for everyone else, casting magic means mana has to be spent in some way or form.
So then, the barrier siphons people’s magical energy, self-sustaining itself by powering its core. It’s a bit clever, but still, I’m not exactly sure if I’m right.
But if I’m right, then I only have one course of action to take here.
I have to destroy that core.
Regular elemental magic won’t work. I can’t cast them anyways, so it was never an option to begin with.
So I’ll use that.